132 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



same locality were compelled to harvest their crops in early winter 

 where shallow cultivation had prevailed. If the experiences of the past 

 three years have demonstrated that dry-year crops may be improved by 

 superior cultivation, a repetition of the troubles that befell the orange- 

 grower last season may be avoided in the future. 



In the pruning of orange trees there is no new item to present. 

 Elaborate articles have been written on this point, but the practical 

 orchardist does little or no pruning. To look after the water sprouts 

 that may distort his trees, and to trim out the branches that die of 

 inanition and thus give the tree an inside bearing surface, are about 

 the limits of orange-tree pruning as practiced by the best growers. The 

 orange tree will produce fancy fruit grown so near the earth that it 

 may ripen in the sand, and indeed the best fruit is usually found upon 

 the lower branches. 



The question of adaptability of soil is no longer an open one. It has 

 been settled so thoroughly by experiences that the new investor can 

 avoid mistakes by a tour of investigation. Generally, lands which bear 

 light, regular crops produce a somewhat superior orange, while the 

 heavier lands produce slightly inferior fruit, but heavier crops. Modern 

 methods of fertilizing have modified these characteristics until it may 

 be broadly stated that there is only an immaterial difference in the fruit 

 grown throughout the true citrus belt. A problem in regard to fertili- 

 zation presents itself this season for the first time. The facts are that 

 hundreds of groves where hardpanning had occurred for two or three 

 years carried the annual or semi-annual applications of fertilizers to the 

 beginning of this year with but partial assimilation. The light rainfall, 

 the sparse irrigation, and other deficiencies caused by three consecutive 

 dry years, together with the light cultivation, must have prevented the 

 utilization of the fertilizers. This has brought a strange experience — 

 the finest condition of trees ever seen, with the lightest crop ever grown 

 from an equal foliage surface. The conclusion is that the trees last 

 winter were supplied with a superabundance of wood-growing, but not 

 sufficient fruit-producing, elements. There is a field for investigation 

 here that the scientific authorities should exploit. 



The question of insect disinfection is too large to cover in a paper of 

 this character. In a majority of the citrus-growing sections unclean 

 fruit bears its own penalty in washing charges, in falling to lower 

 grades, and in the disrepute it brings to the orchardist. Fumigation is 

 more universal this fall than at any other time. It has been reduced 

 to a science, and while the practice is not always successful, poor work 

 is no longer tolerated without a penalty upon the fumigator. There is 

 little complaint of impure cyanide, but much of its improper applica- 

 tion. Daylight fumigation, or more properly warm weather fumigation, 

 is under ban, but many otherwise practical growers have not discovered 



